Foods of love? Not so fast, Casanova

2) Chocolate
THE MYTH: Where to start? There’s the undying gem that chocolate induces the same biological reactions as love. Or its reputation after Spanish explorers saw Aztec emperor Montezuma quaff a goblet’s worth of chocolatl before entering his harem. Or the long-standing association with Valentine’s Day, started after Richard Cadbury invented the chocolate box in 1868; he later devised a heart-shaped version, and now 36 million heart-shaped boxes are sold annually in the United States.

And of course, Casanova is said to have chugged it, Montezuma-style, prior to his conquests.

Notably, Lady Godiva — she of the naked horseback-riding through the streets of Coventry — lived in 10th century England, 500 years before chocolate was introduced to Europe. It wasn’t until 1926 that a Belgian chocolatier named his company for her.

THE REALITY: Certainly, the myth is well established. It was a top response when respondents in a study by psychologist and sex therapist Linda DeVillers were asked to list the most likely aphrodisiac foods.

Since there’s nothing like a medicine that tastes good, a tidal wave of research has attempted to demonstrate chocolate’s beneficial effects. Among the claims: that cocoa contains high levels of antioxidants, and that it can reduce blood pressure. Researcher Adam Drewnowski determined that chocolate could even trigger painkilling compounds in the brain.

Chocolate contains the amino acid tryptophan, which we use to produce the neurotransmitter serotonin, a key component in maintaining consciousness and in feelings of well-being.  But the effect from tryptophan is usually one of sleepiness (as “Seinfeld” fans may recall), not stimulation.  And antidepressants that function by increasing levels of serotonin in the brain are also frequently thought to reduce desire, not increase it.

“Chocolate has been linked to sex drive even before we knew what serotonin was,” says Harvard's Robert Shmerling, who also debunks food claims for Intellihealth.com.

As for chocolate imitating that lovin' feeling? The most frequently named culprit is phenylethylamine, the presence of which in the brain has been linked to feelings of attraction and desire. But chocolate contains it in trace amounts, and no one yet knows how it might get from a bonbon to the nervous system. Ditto that for another trace compound, anandamide, which approximates the psychoactive compounds in marijuana.

Even if chocolate does go to your head, so to speak, you’d need to eat so much that the result would be a stomach ache, not a night full of passion. (And by “chocolate,” we generally mean cocoa solids, not all the milk, sugar and butterfat in most candies.)

More likely is that chocolate’s beneficial properties, plus its reputation as a mood brightener, have gained credence over centuries such that the power of belief outweighs any actual effects. And of course there's the glossy packaging.

“I really do think it’s the environment in which it’s eaten, and maybe the flavor and the mouthfeel and the cultural history that goes with it,” says Fergus Clydesdale, head of the food science department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “A lot of that is placebo.”